Shares of Ubisoft Entertainment, the renowned maker of ‘Assassin’s Creed’, saw a substantial jump in Friday morning trading following the release of its fiscal first-quarter results. The company’s net bookings for the period surpassed both its own guidance and analysts’ predictions.
As of 0800 GMT, Ubisoft shares were trading 4.4% higher at EUR28.56.
Despite a year-on-year decrease of 8.7%, Ubisoft’s net bookings for the three months ending June 30 reached an impressive 267.7 million euros ($298 million). This was well above the company’s guidance of approximately EUR240 million. It also exceeded the forecasts of EUR240 million from Citi analysts and the EUR245 million consensus from Visible Alpha.
Ubisoft attributed its strong performance to the popularity of games such as ‘Tom Clancy’s The Division 2’ and ‘The Crew 2’ among gamers during the quarter.
Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft’s co-founder and CEO, expressed satisfaction with the results, stating, “We delivered a better-than-expected performance and we continued to progress on our two-pillar strategy of reaching a significantly larger audience and growing our recurring revenues.”
Looking ahead, Ubisoft aims to achieve net bookings of around EUR350 million for the current quarter. Additionally, the company anticipates strong top-line growth and non-IFRS operating income of approximately EUR400 million for the full year.
